FAYETTEVILLE — With council approval, the city’s Solid Waste and Recycling Division will hire a consultant to study the best way to more than quadruple the percentage of trash that gets diverted from the landfill.
A proposal by Matthew Petty and Mark Kinion, Ward 2 aldermen, would set an 80 percent “diversion rate” goal by 2025.
The Solid Waste division diverts about 17 percent of material from the Eco-Vista Landfill in Tontitown, according to Brian Pugh, waste reduction coordinator.
That figure includes aluminum, paper, glass and plastic collected through the city’s curbside recycling program and at two recycling drop-off centers as well as yard waste taken to the city’s compost facility. It doesn’t include material recycled by private haulers for businesses.
Meeting Information
Fayetteville City Council
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Room 219, City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain St.
On the Agenda: Develop a 10-year expansion plan for the city’s Solid Waste and Recycling Division
Source: Staff Report
“More recycling occurs in the city than what the city picks up,” Pugh said Tuesday.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Americans recycled and composted 34 percent of the amount of trash generated nationwide in 2011.
Petty acknowledged an 80 percent diversion rate in Fayetteville would be difficult. But his proposal suggests several things a consultant could look at in order to reduce waste.
The study would include a comprehensive education program; a container deposit program for glass bottles; a pickup program for food scraps and other compostable goods; a new recycling center for construction and demolition waste; and a curb-sort recycling program for apartment complexes.
The city has begun placing recycling containers at some large apartments, but the program is voluntary, and, according to Don Marr, chief of staff, there are still 37 complexes with more than 100 units that don't receive on-site recycling service. An apartment curb-sort program would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement, Marr said. New trucks and containers would have to be bought, and employees would have to be hired. There are also savings to be had and money to be made if they city spends less on landfill fees and sells more recyclable goods.
“Everything we can divert from the landfill is a potential reduction in the cost of the program,” Petty said. “It’s also a potential revenue source.”
The study he and Kinion are proposing would define the scope of what it would take to get to an 80 percent diversion rate and the costs associated with getting there.
“We certainly don’t want to expand in service areas that have a cost but don’t have a payback,” Marr said.
The study — and potentially some capital expenditures recommended in the study — would come from the Solid Waste division’s reserve, which is expected to be between $4.2 million and $4.3 million at the end of 2014, said Paul Becker, city finance director.
Officials plan to follow the study with an analysis of the rate structure for trash and recycling collection.
The last change to the city’s rate structure was in 2007, Marr said, although the last rate study for trash collection was done in 1992.
Marr said city administrators planned to hire a consultant for a rate study by the end of the year.
Petty said it didn’t make sense, however, to analyze rates before knowing what changes might be in store.
“Any significant expansion of services taking place after the currently scheduled rate study will necessitate a second rate study,” his proposal states.
Marr, Pugh and Petty said they weren’t sure how long either study would take. Marr said he’d like to have a plan in place before the end of 2014, when the replacement schedule for several Solid Waste and Recycling trucks begins again.